


Witch

by Omicheese



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Family, Fluff, Immaturity, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-30 00:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omicheese/pseuds/Omicheese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sweden and Finland's first meeting could have gone better.  Why did Sweden's brothers have to be so annoying?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Witch

**Author's Note:**

> I researched for this extensively, but unfortunately most of it doesn’t show. This is set some time before the 700s, but has no particular date. The way I’m looking at it, [Sweden is the oldest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedes_\(Germanic_tribe\)#History), Denmark is only a litt bit younger, and Norway is much younger. The biggest warning I can think of is for immaturity, occasional switching of POV, and attempts to write accents. Oh, and it might help to know what a [huldra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huldra) is.

One day, Sweden looked across the sea.

Had seen it before, of course. It was there. Big, blue, froze up every once in a while. But this time he looked _across_ it.

There were a lot of trees, he noticed first. Darker and thicker than the forests he knew. They looked nearly untouched. Any people there at all, he wondered idly.

But then he saw a pale face peek out from between the trees.

The face looked around for a moment before looking out across the sea. Their eyes met on accident. Almost immediately after, the face slipped back into the forest, vanished into the dark and did not reappear.

There would be no rest until he could see that face again.

*

“The East, eh? Heh, watch out f’r trolls.”

“Is elves out there could get ‘im, too!”

“And what would elves want with a nation, stupid?”

“Could want _summat!_ _You_ dunno!”

“Eh, _maybe_ ,” Denmark sighed, exasperated, but then taunted, “but I sure know that _you_ don’t know.” Ignoring Norway’s pout, he continued, “And anyway, Sweden could probably kill ‘em, he’s so strong.” And he tackled Norway again.

Sweden ignored them, mostly. He usually did. Wasn’t as though either of them would get _that_ hurt. Instead he continued working, lashing planks to the skeletal hull of the boat that would take him across the sea.

“Hey, Sweden?” Norway called out from a headlock that muffled him slightly and explained why he’d been yelping a minute or two ago. “Iffen you die over there, can I have your house?”

“Have t’ fight Denmark f’r ‘t.”

Norway groaned and Denmark cheered and Sweden kept working.

“Why’s it so important ta get there, anyway?” Denmark asked in a rare instance of sensibility, sitting on Norway while the smaller boy’s fists and feet flailed like he thought it could do anything. “Anything over there?”

Sweden shrugged a bit, but his face started to turn red. Didn’t really want to talk about it; never was the sharing feelings sort. But they never kept anything from him, so... “Saw somebody.” Shrugged again and looked away. “’cross ‘way.”

Shouldn’t have said it. Denmark immediately started jeering (“ _Ooooooooooh_ , Sweden’s got a cru~ush!”), while Norway’s face fell in horror (“A _huldra!_ ”) and his flailing got worse. Should _not_ have said it.

Denmark leered, adjusting his seat on Norway in an attempt to shut him up and hold him down at the same time. “Was she _cute?_ ”

Nearly dropped the hammer. “Don’ wan’ talk ‘bout it.” His ears felt hot.

“It’s a huldra! Keep _away_ from it!” Norway warned in an awkward yelp, still trying to get away from Denmark.

“Why’s it have to be a _huldra_ , eh? Can’t it just be a cute girl?” Denmark laughed, poking Norway in the ribs.

Norway pulled a face, which wasn’t much different from his normal face. “Sweden’s too tough to go falling for a _girl_ ,” he scathed, rolling his eyes.

“Just ‘cuz _you’re_ too wee to ‘ppreciate girls--“

“Girls is good for wearing jewelry and bossing boys ‘round,” Norway huffed, pouting. Vaguely surprised he didn’t add that they had ‘cooties’. “When I want somebody for owt like that, I’ll find one.”

“But why’s it have to be a _huldra?_ ” Denmark bothered again, continuing to assert his size advantage and keep their brother pinned.

“Just ‘cause _you_ can’t see ‘em--“

“But you want ta see her again, don’tcha?” Denmark interrupted, changing the subject back to nagging Sweden. Sweden had hoped he’d forgotten about it, but apparently not. “That’s why you’re building the boat! Ta go check out the cute girl!”

“Dunno what i’ was--barely saw ‘t,” he muttered, trying to shrug it off. And it wasn’t a lie. Barely did see it. No idea who or what it was--just a face. But something _about_ it... He _needed_ to see it again, knew that much. Kept _thinking_ about it, even when he thought he wasn’t. But _talking_ about it was too much. _Particularly_ with his family. Norway was way too young to sympathize, and Denmark was at that _giggly_ age. Never get _anywhere_ talking to him about this kind of thing. Not to mention Sweden generally just wasn’t comfortable talking to _anybody_. Always felt stupid. So he just kept his head down and kept working, and maybe they’d drop it.

They didn’t, but it was worth hoping.

*

Rowing over wasn’t hard. Sea was nice and open, rocking the boat slowly until he reached the shore. No one was there.

Should’ve expected it, really. Had gotten his hopes up pretty high to find...whatever it was, but it wasn’t too likely to just be there when he showed up, no matter how much he wanted to find it. Sweden started to wonder if it really was a good idea to come all this way when he noticed somebody in the forest ahead. Reached for his sword, just in case, but before he could do anything, the person turned around, saw him, and screamed. “ _Ohyaaaaaaa!!!!!!_ ”

_That was the face_. But it wasn’t a girl, it was a boy--about his age or younger, it was hard to tell. A really... _pretty_ boy. Small, blonde, pale little thing dressed very warmly with round, pink cheeks and big, dark, blue eyes that looked like they could go on forever and _oh gods how long had he been staring at him he must look like such a creep_. He abruptly turned his head to look away, feeling his ears redden. That’s it. He blew it. Finally gets over here and the first thing he does is make a _complete_ idiot out of himself. Had never actually wanted to make a good impression before--had no idea how _difficult_ it would be. Or how embarrassing. Especially embarrassing. What was he supposed to _say?_ Was he _supposed_ to say anything? He shouldn’t just stand here awkwardly blushing and trying not to look at him--but if he did look at him, what if he ended up just staring at him again?

Should say something. _Anything_. Even just a ‘nice to meet you’ or something. But that would sound so stupid, with him having stood here for so long without saying anything! But he needed to say _something_ , didn’t he?

“Um.” It was the best he could manage. But at least he’d gotten the courage together to look at him again. And he really did like looking at him. He seemed to shine in the sunlight, like something magic. “Um.” Was the best he could say. ‘You’re beautiful’ was closer to the mark, but to say that out loud had to be the only thing that could possibly embarrass him any more than he had embarrassed himself so far.

“Umm,” the other repeated, holding the ‘m’ out so that the sound hummed softly in his mouth. Even his _voice_ was beautiful. “Hello,” he finished carefully.

_He was talking to him_. Mental faculties thudded shut. “Um.” He was _talking_ to him. That meant he _had_ to say something. _Something_. “’l-‘lo,” he forced his tongue to stammer out, already kicking himself for tripping over a word that easy.

“Hello,” the boy said again, and a smile kind of twitched its way onto his face as he looked up at him. “N-Nice weather, isn’t it?”

The blue eyes shifted a lot, dashing to the sides before bobbing back up in his direction. They sparkled. Should he say something? Didn’t want to, scared to--always sounded stupid when he talked. Clumsy and slurry and stupid. Far too embarrassed to talk in front of this beautiful shining boy with his beautiful musical voice. Would sound even worse in comparison. Couldn’t stand to make even more of an idiot of himself, not in front of this boy, the only person he could remember wanting to look good for...

But, miraculously, seemed he didn’t have to say anything. The boy kept talking unprompted, filling in the gaps in his own conversation. “A little warm, maybe, but then Midsummer was only a few weeks ago, so it would be warm, wouldn’t it? And it’s really nice how long the days are in summer--it’s good to see the sun every once in a while, don’t you think? Midsummer’s a really nice holiday. We had a big party for it. Do they celebrate Midsummer...wherever it is you come from?”

Sweden had found, without a doubt, the perfect being.

So he took him home.

*

That could _not_ be a person. There was no way.

Denmark wolf-whistled as Sweden helped it down from the boat. Norway leaned over and poked him. “You can see it, right?” he demanded, still keeping an eye on it, making sure it didn’t try anything funny while he wasn’t looking.

“Oh yeah, you betcha. So it’s _not_ a huldra,” Denmark grinned like he thought he’d won. “I’d expected a girl, but a boy works too. Still cute. Sweden’s such a _dog_.” And he started sniggering to himself. The sniggering habit was relatively new. Denmark just kept getting stupider the older he got.

“Just ‘cause you can see it doesn’t mean it’s normal!” Norway protested exasperatedly. He’d tried explaining this kind of thing to Denmark before, about things that can only be seen when they want to be, but it never worked. He was always too stubborn to listen. “It’s _magic_ , I can tell!”

“I can’t see magic stuff, you know that, stupid,” Denmark sighed, and shook his head a little. Then he ruffled up Norway’s hair until it was all tangly and messy, jumped down from the wall, and grinned up at him. “C’mon, let’s go meet ‘im.”

They walked down to the shore where Sweden and that thing he brought back with him were. It could _not_ be human. It was _definitely_ magic, whatever it was-- _powerfully_ magic. Sweden had to have no idea, either. Sweden could see more magic than Denmark could, not that that said much, but if he noticed anything he certainly wasn’t _doing_ anything about it. All he was really doing was _gawking_. The glamour was probably blinding him or something.

Denmark immediately started trying to humiliate Sweden (“Look at you, hot stuff, picking up a cutie like that! Is that your _boyfriend?_ ”), but Norway didn’t bother to see if he was succeeding. He was too busy watching it. It was acting weak, shivering a lot with its eyes shifting all over, but Norway knew better. He walked around it, slowly, checking for the tail it had to be hiding, but he couldn’t find it. Its back didn’t look hollow or made of tree-bark either, even considering it was wearing clothes that might cover it. Just in case he poked it between the shoulder blades.

“ _Ohyaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ ” it squealed, shivering up its spine and wheeling around to look at him with big, watery blue eyes. “W-what?”

Its back definitely _wasn’t_ hollow. Well, at least that ruled out _something_. “You’re... _not_ a huldra, then?” Norway questioned cautiously, trying to raise an eyebrow even though he hadn’t quite mastered how to do that yet. Raised eyebrows were intimidating.

“Wh-what’s a huldra?” it asked, biting its lower lip. It could always be feigning ignorance, of course, but its back wasn’t hollow and it didn’t have a tail. Even if it wanted to hide its tail and no one else could see, Norway would have been able to tell, same way he could see magic. Things didn’t hide from him.

Denmark broke the tension, though, by blabbing, “See, I _told_ you so,” as loudly as he could, successfully raising an eyebrow at Norway just to prove he could. Jerk.

“It’s not _normal_ ,” Norway pouted, forced to rethink his options. It wasn’t a huldra. It wasn’t an elf, everyone could recognize elves. It was too short to be a giant. Nations weren’t magical, at least none that he’d ever met. And humans just _never_ had that much magic, at least not-- _unless_... “It’s a _witch!_ ”

“A-A witch? No I’m not,” it replied, but it wouldn’t look him in the eye. Thought it could deny it, did it? He had it now.

“Luring my brother over there was part of your evil plot, wasn’t it? What’re you planning to do with ‘im?” Norway accused, looking it in the face now so that it couldn’t try to get out of it. Whatever it was after, he was _not_ going to let it get away with it.

“ _W-What?!_ I’m not- I don’t-“ it sputtered, red in the face. Must be embarrassing to have its schemes figured out so easily. It looked like it might cry.

Sweden cleared his throat awkwardly, cutting off any chance to interrogate the witch further, unfortunately. “Ought ‘go inside,” he mumbled, and started walking toward the house, bringing the witch with him.

Denmark laughed loudly and messed up Norway’s hair again, even though Norway had spent enough effort untangling it from the last time he’d done it. “Why’re you so crazy?” he asked, grinning, before heading up to the house himself.

Norway ignored him. This was _not_ over.

*

“Sw’d’n.”

“...Suttin?”

“Sw’d’n.”

“Soyden?”

“His name’s Susann!”

“Don’ list’n t’ ‘m,” Sweden brushed Denmark aside, which probably only made the witch even _more_ confused.

They’d been at this for about five minutes now. Norway had tried at first to make sure that Sweden didn’t tell the witch his name-- _never_ let something with magic learn your name or it’ll have power over you! --but apparently he’d been worried over nothing. He couldn’t even pronounce the stupid thing.

“So... so _what’s_ your name, again?”

“Sw’d’n.”

“Soodin?”

“ _Sw’d’n_.”

“Seedun?”

“ _Sweden_. His name is _Sweden_ ,” Norway finally hissed, getting tired of it. Was it _that_ hard to say, seriously?

“Sooiee...wait, what?”

Norway rolled his eyes and turned away. There was no helping some people. For a witch, he really wasn’t that sharp.

“Y’ c’n shorten, ‘f y’ like,” Sweden offered. His face was all red again. Speak properly or not, the witch certainly knew what he was doing--in fact, he might be doing this _on purpose_ , trying to make them lower their guard so that he could do something particularly sinister. _Clever_.

“Umm, how about ‘Mr. S’, then? Nice and short and...easy to say? Is it alright if I call you that?” the witch suggested, smiling and scratching his head awkwardly like he hadn’t been planning this whole thing from the start. Take his name and replace it with another one--first step toward stealing his free will and _soul_. Sweden’s face only turned redder as he fell right into the trap and nodded--his mind must already be gone.

“ _I’m on to you_ ,” Norway whispered threateningly into the witch’s ear, sneaking up behind him.

“ _Ohyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!_ ” the witch shrieked, jumping about a foot in the air, shaking. It would have been funny if Norway didn’t keep expecting him to turn them all into mice or start breathing fire. That’s right, witch, _be_ afraid.

What Norway hadn’t expected was Sweden to come to the witch’s rescue. He hadn’t counted on him being _that_ far gone yet. But there he was, grabbing the back of Norway’s tunic, holding him a few inches off the ground, glaring at him like he had done something _wrong_ , rather than attempt to save his oldest brother from certain evil, danger, and most unrighteous death. After all, you can’t gloriously die in battle and go to Valhalla without your soul. But apparently Sweden didn’t care anymore. Instead he just glared, hauled him out the door, and dropped him.

“You’re playing right into ‘is hands! Cast ‘im out before it’s too late!” Norway tried to warn as Sweden shut the door, but there was no reasoning with him. Older brothers were stupid.

“ _Ooooh_ , looking ta be _alone_ , are they?” Denmark hooted from the other end of the room Norway had just been most undeservingly banished to, sharpening a sword.

“ _You_ think we should keep the witch away from ‘im, don’t you, Bro?” Norway wheedled, looking for backup. He could never protect Sweden from the witch by himself, after all, and he was running out of time. Any minute now that vile sorcerer could beguile and enslave Sweden completely, and maybe even use him to take over the world.

“Now, Norway,” Denmark grinned in the most annoying way possible, putting his arm around Norway’s shoulder for another _I’m older than you_ lecture. “Comes a time in a man’s life when he starts looking f’r a little _company_ , don’tcha know. And our Sweden’s getting right around that age...” His grin got even bigger and stupider. “You see what ’m getting at, don’tcha?”

He was abandoning their brother in his time of _need_ was what he was getting at. Trust Denmark to underestimate a supernatural threat. Older brothers were _stupid_. “You are no help at all,” Norway scathed, looking up at him.

Denmark sighed dramatically, because everything he ever did was as dramatic as he could make it, rolled his eyes, sheathed the sword he had been working on, tackled Norway to the ground and sat on him.

Curses.

*

“S-Sorry ‘bout that,” Sweden apologized, returning from the door to sit again awkwardly across from the beautiful boy he’d brought home. _Finland_. Prettiest name he’d ever heard.

Finland laughed a little, and that smile twitched its way back onto his face. “Your little brother’s really...imaginative, isn’t he?”

Sweden just sort of shrugged. Ears were feeling hot again. Norway should know better than to threaten guests. Everyone else was fair game, but not guests. Must not have taught him well enough.

Finland kind of laughed again and shook his head like he was trying to get water out of his ears. “A witch, that’s a little... Kind of out-there, isn’t it? I mean, I do see the future every now and then, and I did contact a dead guy that one time, but that was just to ask him a question, and I always feel better leaving that sort of thing to the shamans, because, well, they know what they’re doing, don’t you think?”

...Wait, what?

“After all, it’s their job, it’s not safe for just anybody to do it, right? And being a witch is really more in what you’re trying to do than what you’re actually doing. I mean, _anybody_ could be a witch if they were mean enough about it, couldn’t they? Or at least anybody with enough power could, since, I guess, not just anybody could leave their body and go visit the spirit world, right? I guess that’s kind of stupid. But me, a _witch_ , seriously!” He giggled a little and scratched his head. “That’s just silly!”

...Maybe Norway wasn’t as paranoid as he thought he was.

“Hey, umm, Mr. S? I was kind of wondering...”

“Mm?”

“Umm, at some point could you, umm, take me home, please?”

Hadn’t thought about that. Being honest, he hadn’t really planned on it, and just figured Finland would stay here. Didn’t seem like too good an idea now, though--Norway would throw a fit. “Yeah, sure.” Shrugged again.

“Really?” And suddenly he smiled, a real, big, honest smile, not the twitchy one he’d been wearing earlier. He _glowed_. “Thank you!”

Eh, witch or not, who cares?

*

“’m taking Finl’nd home.”

“ _Good_.”

“I might visit ‘im every once ‘n a while.”

“ _What?_ ” Norway’s jaw dropped slightly. “ _Please_ tell me you’re joking.”

Sweden shrugged. “Like ‘im.”

“Of course you _think_ you like ‘im!” Norway snapped. Looked like he’d wanted to say this all day. “He’s cast a spell on you! Of _course_ you wouldn’t notice he was evil--that’s the whole _point_ , but that doesn’t mean it’s not _dangerous!_ It’s even _worse_ if you don’t notice! He’ll seduce you and entrap you and suck out your soul and keep you under his magic spell _forever_ less’n you fight it, Sweden!” Could actually tell he was upset from his face, so he must be pretty worked up over it. His fists were all balled up, and he stood directly in Sweden’s way.

Took a second to look at Finland. He was standing near the boat. When he noticed Sweden was watching, he smiled. That was the prettiest smile in the world. “Don’ mind,” Sweden shrugged again.

Norway’s jaw dropped again, a little lower this time. “You don’t _mind?_ ” he repeated incredulously. “You don’t care iffen he drains you dry and leaves you a lifeless _husk?_ ”

“Nope.”

Looked like he was going to argue it some more, but Denmark dropped on his shoulders, grinning. “Hope he doesn’t take it this bad when _I_ get a girlfriend!” Norway tensed up and threw him a glare that could probably kill people, but Denmark just laughed and put more weight on him.

“You’re letting ‘im _die_ ,” Norway complained, trying to get out of Denmark’s grasp, but it wasn’t working very well.

“Come _on_ , Norway,” Denmark teased, pulling the curls in Norway’s hair so that they’d spring back when he let go of them. “Don’tcha want him ta be happy?”

“I- But- You-!“

“Go on, then,” Denmark grinned at Sweden, waving him toward the shore. “Have your fun and be back soon, eh?” He spared an arm to elbow Sweden in the ribs, leering. “ _If ya know what I mean_.” And he giggled.

Could feel his ears turning red again, but took the excuse to get out of here. Little brothers were stupid.

*

The bear-man rowed away the same way he’d shown up, only every once in a while he’d look back over his shoulder. Finland stood and watched him for a while until he’d rowed out of sight, at which point his knees _finally_ gave out.

Estonia rushed out from the tree he’d been hiding behind, nearly crying. “Finland!! You’re _alive!!_ I thought that bear-man had _killed_ you!!”

Finland took a deep, shuddering breath before he wailed, “That was the scariest thing that has ever ever happened to me, _all_ those people are crazy, and I hope I never see them again!!”


End file.
